Personal Stories

Dawn’s Story: Focused on Good Health, Not Thinness

A Path to Personal Growth – I’ll Never Diet Again!

Several years ago, Dawn recognized that while she was doing a great job taking care of other people, it was often at her own expense. The result of this neglect was weight gain and an under-fit body that didn’t suit her busy lifestyle as a business professional, wife, and mother of two young children. Granting herself permission to focus on her concerns, she made a pledge to make better choices.

First, Dawn sought the advice of her physician. Then, she took an approach indicative of her business savvy: surrounding herself with the experts at Am I Hungry?® who served as her facilitators for change. Their professional and personalized approach served as the cornerstone for Dawn’s resolve. She didn’t, however, foresee how this commitment to change would direct her on a path toward self-awareness and personal growth.

The Am I Hungry? Program provided Dawn with the necessary expertise in the psychosocial, fitness, and nutrition aspects of a healthy lifestyle. She immediately began applying the knowledge and tools she gained into her daily life. She learned to be aware of her body and listen when it says, “Hey! I’m really not hungry” even when she wanted to eat. She is now able to gauge her hunger level before, during, and after eating. Initially, Dawn discovered that she was often eating to an “8” (“Discomfort”), but by the end of the program (and still today), she eats to a desirable “5” (“satisfied”) with ease.

Motivated and Finding Balance

Clearly, the lessons have had a lasting impact. Learning to recognize the environmental and emotional “triggers” like stress that were causing her to want to eat even when she wasn’t hungry provided her with insight into her actions that, previously, Dawn had never “owned.” Acknowledging her responses to those triggers empowered her to change them. Combined with lessons in fitness and nutrition essentials, this new found insight allowed Dawn to adopt a fresh perspective on her motivations. By refocusing her goal on good health, rather than thinness, Dawn has achieved balance in her life.

While Dawn may not describe her approach to eating as businesslike, in many ways it is. Her vision of where she wants to be encompasses both her professional and personal life, and she sets her goals accordingly. One such goal – improved personal health – involved more than just weight loss. Surprisingly, incorporating physical activity into her day became easy when she did it to improve her health and energy – rather than to punish herself for overeating. Furthermore, recognizing her psychological triggers illuminated the correlation between Dawn’s overeating and her “need” to smoke. This insight allowed Dawn to analyze the common emotional cues – and break her smoking habit too!

One thing Dawn is very clear on: She will never diet again.

Today, three years into her new lifestyle, Dawn is closing in on her goal and proclaims, “It’s just not an effort to lose weight anymore.” She learned through Am I Hungry? that all things are possible with a foundation of self-awareness, new tools, and this life-changing approach.